


A Day in the Life

by ispawnedhere



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-29 04:09:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6358765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ispawnedhere/pseuds/ispawnedhere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren wakes up in his bed at home and realizes all of his experiences with titans and his friends dying was just a dream. He looks out the window and sees that there is no wall surrounding his town. So he leads a normal life with his parents and goes to school, where he is friends with all the characters. Mysterious flashes of his dream lead him to feel more and more insecure, until...</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Day in the Life

**Author's Note:**

> SPOILER ALERT. If you haven't at least seen the whole anime, read this fic at your own risk.   
> Don't say I didn't warn you.

Eren saw his friends and his mother die in the most gruesome ways possible. The titans ravaged cities, breaking down the wall and killing many. His only comforts were the friends like Mikasa and Armin who were still alive, and the only thing that kept him going was that image, seared into his mind for eternity, of his mother, struggling in a titan's grip, blood bursting out into the air.   
He knew he could never bring her back. All he wanted was to avenge her.   
He heard Mikasa's voice, calling his name. Her voice was soft, but gradually grew sharper as he stayed asleep.   
"Eren!" He snapped awake and sat straight up in his bed, his dream gone in the blink of an eye.   
Mikasa, not showing much emotion but still a bit surprised, said, "We're going to be late for school. You'd better get up."   
She walked out of the room, leaving his door wide open.   
He blinked again. What was that all about? It was just a dream all along? For some reason, that dream seemed so vivid in his mind, he wanted to check and make sure. So he got up out of bed and walked over to his window, looking out and scanning the horizon. No wall enclosing the town. Anywhere.   
Realizing everything was normal and getting ready for school, something in the back of his mind bugged him. He heard Mikasa's voice, ringing in his head, calling his name. He knew he was probably just remembering how she'd just woken him that morning. Wasn't he?   
He walked out to the kitchen for breakfast. There was his family, his mom and dad, sitting at the table eating breakfast. They were alive. Right, of course they were alive. Why wouldn't they be? After all, it was just a dream, Eren reminded himself.   
"Here, I've already made your breakfast," Eren's mom said patiently, pushing his bowl to him as he sat down.   
"Thanks."   
He ate slowly and passively listened to his mother and father talk about things that had happened to them at work the previous day. No one noticed that he was oddly silent throughout breakfast.   
"Eren, Mikasa, you should hurry off to school," said Eren's father.   
"Oh, right! Get moving or you'll be late!" his mother agreed, catching a glimpse of the clock.   
Mikasa thanked them for breakfast, then pulled Eren out the door.   
As they walked, Mikasa noticed something was different. "Eren, what's wrong?" she asked, concerned.   
He looked at her with a questioning expression on his face, as if he didn't know he was acting oddly. "Nothing."   
She looked unsure, but she decided not to interrogate him.   
They arrived at their high school just a few minutes before the bell rang, and as soon as they walked in, they were greeted by Sasha and Connie.   
"Hey, guys!" said Sasha, eating a donut.   
"What's up?" asked Connie casually.   
"Sasha, are you even allowed to have that donut?" Mikasa wondered with a sort of scolding tone.   
"Well, are we allowed to skip class? No, but it's what we're doing," Connie replied.   
"You guys are skipping first hour?" asked Eren.   
"Yep. We're leaving campus to get something else to eat," answered Sasha.   
"Alone," said Connie, nudging Eren and winking as they both walked away.   
That's right, Connie and Sasha were dating. He didn't know why he'd forgotten, the dream must have really gotten him disoriented.   
"Those two are weird," said Mikasa, "But we need to get going to our classes."   
Eren nodded in agreement.   
He arrived in his first class of the day just as the bell rang. Well, at least he wasn't late.   
He slid into his seat as the teacher walked to the front and center of the classroom. Sighing, he stared out the window throughout the entire lesson. That's something the dream definitely hadn't changed about him, he never found himself able to pay attention in class.   
The clouds drifted slowly by. All of a sudden, Eren saw a flash of red. He saw blood spatter across the green grass, and heard the swish of swords and the thumping of...something huge.   
It was just a flash, over as soon as it had started. He looked around frantically, checking if he was the only one that had it. He was.   
Annie, his table partner, turned to him. "Are you okay?" she asked. Annie always seemed to know what people were thinking. There was a moment of eye contact, and it felt like she was staring into his soul.   
"I--I'm fine, yeah."   
He didn't know what any of this meant, but he disregarded it. After all, it had just been a dream. That was the mantra he repeated to himself all throughout that day.   
In second hour, there was a substitute teacher. Which meant no one payed attention and everyone was talking.   
Eren was sitting next to Marco, who was sitting next to Jean. Wait, that's right! They were a thing too. Eren couldn't believe he kept forgetting these things about his friends.   
"And, anyway," said Jean, "They were all totally jealous of me."   
Eren was tuning out Jean's self-centered story.   
"Hey, Eren, are you even listening?" Jean asked, his voice confrontational.   
"Jean, calm down. He was listening, weren't you, Eren?" Marco said. He was probably the most level headed person in the school.   
"Yep. I was," Eren lied.   
Jean looked suspicious, but kept talking.   
Another vision struck Eren. For a second, he swore he saw the right half of Marco's body just...disintigrate. Shocked, he blinked, clearing the vision and returning to normal.   
He must have looked as shocked as he felt, because Marco asked him, "Eren...is everything alright?"   
Eren looked up, reassuring himself that Marco was completely there. Then he hesitated, and nodded. "Yeah. I'm going to the bathroom."   
"Hahaha, did you wet your pants or something?" Jean called as Eren walked out of the classroom. He heard Marco shushing as he walked away.   
He ran into Armin in the hallway.   
"A-armin? Why are you here?" Eren asked, confused. Armin never skipped class.   
"The teacher sent me to deliver these papers to the office!" Armin said, holding up a sizeable stack of papers.   
"Oh, okay." Eren turned and they walked past each other. As he was turning, though, Eren had yet another vision. Armin was...being swallowed by a titan? Eren looked down as he saw his arm disappearing. This was probably the most harrowing vision he'd had yet. What was going on? Eren picked up the pace and started running. He dashed into the nearest bathroom and washed his face in a sink. He then looked up, analyzing his reflection in the mirror.   
He saw himself, as he was. Exactly as he was expected to look. No, on second thought, not exactly. He looked...older. Like he'd seen things no one should ever be subjected to. He blinked, and his reflection turned back to normal.   
What was wrong with him? What was it about this dream that was so different from all his others? And if he fell asleep, would he have the same dream again? He was almost afraid to go to sleep that night for fear his worries would come true. He heard Mikasa's voice again, ringing in the back of his head, just as he had getting ready for school that morning. He felt like his previous thoughts, "I'm just remembering the way she woke me up this morning", were incorrect. But he didn't know what that meant, and he was afraid to find out.   
He returned to his class, vowing to ignore every vision from there on out, hoping they would go away.   
Soon enough, it was lunch time. He sat at a table with Mikasa, Armin, Krista, Ymir, Reiner, and Bertolt.   
He didn't even need to have a sudden awakening of memory to know that Krista and Ymir were a couple. I mean, it was just so obvious.   
"Hey, Krista, do you want to come over to my house after school?" Eren overheard Ymir asking.   
"Oh, sure!" said Krista, "Hey, Reiner, Bertolt, do you want to come too?"   
Ymir turned red. "No, I mean, just you!"   
"But why? The more, the merrier, right?" Krista wondered, puzzled.   
Eren laughed to himself, and continued eating his lunch. But then, another flash of vision. Ymir was...Ymir was a titan, in this one. He had no idea why, or how...but he was terrified. This wasn't real. None of this was real. Right? Eren found it harder and harder to convince himself of that as the visions came and went.   
Throughout the rest of the day, visions kept crossing through Eren's mind. Showing themselves, and leaving as soon as he blinked. He probably would have grown a little more accustomed to them, if more didn't keep appearing. As the day went on, he had visions more and more often. People were beginning to worry, and it got much more difficult to convince them everything was fine.   
At the end of the day, he walked home alone, making sure to leave as soon as possible so he wouldn't have to be around Mikasa and have her see him like this.   
He knew she would be concerned, but he decided it was for the best.   
Almost immediately after arriving at home, he went into his room and closed the door. He spent the entire evening in there, and he even turned down dinner when his mother offered it to him.   
He spent that whole time concealing himself from the world. The visions were driving him crazy, and he didn't know what was real and what was fake anymore. He wasn't even sure his visions were just visions and not a glimpse into reality.   
He was determined to stay awake that whole night so he could avoid having the dream again.   
Unfortunately, he grew very tired. The visions were exhausting him, mentally and physically. So, against his will, he eventually fell asleep.   
For a moment, he was drifting into darkness. Falling. He became dizzy as he kept falling, and falling, into what seemed like eternity. He heard Mikasa'a voice again, calling his name, trying to wake him. It sounded like she was underwater, or very far away.   
Just as he hit the ground in this dream, he snapped awake. He sat bolt upright, breathing heavily and sweating.   
Mikasa called his name again. This time, her voice was much clearer. He turned and saw her crouching next to him.   
"Eren! You're awake?"  
Eren observed his surroundings. He was...in the real world. Lying on cold, hard dirt--presumably the ground. There was a tall wall surrounding the town. The wall appeared to be damaged, but a huge rock seemed to blocking the hole.   
"You did it, Eren!" Armin said, excitedly approaching them. "You blocked up the hole!"  
Eren looked down. There was a slight steam rising from him.   
All of a sudden, everything came flooding back to him. The titans broke through the wall, and he'd had a mission to turn into his titan form and block it. And, according to Armin's reaction and the giant rock in the wall, he'd succeeded!   
As Mikasa and Armin talked happily, Eren thought. This meant people were really dead. It meant Marco was dead. And it meant Armin had really almost been eaten by a titan, and Eren had lost an arm (then regenerated it). It meant none of those people who were together in his dream, were together at all.   
He sighed quietly. This wasn't the life he'd wanted.   
But as he looked around him and saw Armin and Mikasa actually appearing to be even a bit happy, he felt joy deep down that was something more real than anything he could've felt in that "perfect" life.   
Maybe the life he wished for wasn't the life he belonged in.


End file.
